


Through the Looking-Glass

by Artabria



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Modern Girl in Thedas, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating May Change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-07-10
Packaged: 2018-09-14 02:15:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9153067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artabria/pseuds/Artabria
Summary: Her ears were too long and too pointy to belong in a human body, and her hair was the wrong colour. To make matters worse, she had woken in a world that believed that she had commited a massacre.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Behold Iria, who probably is half OC/half Self-Insert.

Iria had no idea of how she had ended kneeling in what looked like a dungeon right out from the Middle Ages, surrounded by four guards with armour. The last thing she remembered, before awakening in one of the cells, was going out for a walk around the forest close to town.

There were also those strange memories of running away from something.

A pain that began in the palm of her right hand crossed her arm. For a moment, she had forgotten the strange mark in her hand. It looked like a scar, green and bright, that crossed the palm of her hand from left to right, and it hurt like there were hundred hot needles stabbing her flesh.

Iria doubled in pain, trying to repress the scream that wanted to escape her mouth. How long had she been kneeling in this damn dungeon? She could feel the cold in her bones, and the stone floor wasn’t very helpful.

The woman observed her trousers while she tried to recover her breath. She didn’t know how she had ended her, neither did she now who had changer her clothes or why. She didn’t recognize the green clothes that she was wearing, and she could feel the unfamiliar weight of the armour on her shoulders.

To the best of her ability, she tried to ignore the locks of hair falling around her head. They were red, something that shouldn’t be possible. She wasn’t a redhead, her hair had always been brown.

For the fourth time since she had woken up, Iria raised her hands to one of her ears, following with the tips of her fingers the shape of an ear too long and too pointy to be a human ear.

A part of her wanted to convince herself that all of this was nothing more than a dream or a simple hallucination, but the rest of her refused to accept that lie. The cold, the smells, the pain in her hand… It was all too real.

The door in front of her finally opened and two women walked into the room. One of them, with short hair, was wearing an armour, and she ordered the guards outside. The other woman, suited with a chainmail and a purple hood that partly covered her red hair, situated herself in front of her, looking at her with eyes that missed no detail.

 “Tell me why we shouldn’t kill you know,” said the first woman in English, walking around her until she stopped next to the red-haired woman. “The Conclave is destroyed. Everyone who attended is dead. Except for you.”

Iria remained in silence. It made no sense for her to answer. This women knew more about what was going on than her. The woman with the armour grabbed her right hand, the mark glowing erratically, and showed it to her.

“Explain _this_.”

“I… I can’t,” answered Iria. She wanted to shout, demand answers about where she was and what was happening –what _had_ happened-, but she doubted they could give her those answers, or that she would manage to remain calm enough to have a conversation in English.

 “What do you mean you _can’t_?” demand the woman.

“I don’t know what this thing is, or how I got here,” Iria tried to explain.

The answer didn’t satisfied the woman, who grabbed her by the shoulders and brought Iria’s face close to hers.

“You’re lying!”

The other woman finally intervened in the interrogation, separating the woman in the armour from her.

 “We need her, Cassandra,” said the woman. Need? Need for what? “Do you remember what happened? How this began?”

“I remember a green light. And pain,” she told them. “There was something following, then, and I run.”

“Anything else?”

Iria frowned, trying to remember those moments.

“A woman, perhaps?” she added, unsure.

“A woman?” the red-haired woman answered, curious.

Iria shrugged, “I’m afraid that I don’t remember much of what happened.”

“Leliana,” interrupted Cassandra. “Go to the forward camp. I will take her to the rift.”

Rift? Rift, rift… That was something like a crack, right?

Leliana left then, leaving Cassandra and Iria alone. Cassandra kneeled before her and unchained her hands, only to replace the chains with a rope.

“What has happened?” Perhaps she could figure out how she had ended here and in this body that was too slender to be hers.

“It will be easier to show you,” was all the answer she received from Cassandra.

 

*          *          *

Under other circumstances, Iria would had been giddy about seeing snow for the third time in her life. The vision that greeted her when they left the building housing the dungeon behind took her breath away. There was a village, formed by houses and tents, and on the distance, coming from between some mountains and reaching into the clouds in the sky, there was a green light surrounding by floating rocks.

Iria observed with growing anxiety the mark on her hand, glowing with the same greenish light that illuminated the sky.

“We call it the Breach. It’s a massive rift into the world of demons that grows larger with each passing hour. It’s not the only such rift, just the largest. All were caused by the explosion at the Conclave,” explained Cassandra.

That thing… They thought _she_ had done that? They thought they had created that rift between this world and a world of demons?

Wait. A rift between two worlds?

Oh. No, no, no.

Not between two worlds.

Iria’s fingers traced once more the pointy shape of her ears.

Not just two worlds. It had been at least _three_.

“ _¿Hubo…?_ Where there more survivors?” she asked Cassandra. Are there more people trapped in the wrong bodies, she wanted to ask.

The woman looked at her for a moment in silence before answering.

“As I said before, all those that were in the Conclave died in the explosion that destroyed the temple,” answered Cassandra. “You are the only survivor.”

Iria couldn’t help the small nervous giggle that left her lips. Just her in this world, then.

Cassandra interrupted her thoughts by pushing her a bit on her back to make her walk.

“We must move,” she said. “Unless we act, the breach may grow until it swallows the world.”

Almost like emphasizing Cassandra’s words, the Breach glowed stronger and the mark in her hand pulsated once more with hot pain, making her kneel on the snow. This time, Iria couldn’t hold back the scream.

“Each time the Breach expands, your mark spreads… It’s killing you,” explained Cassandra. “It may be the key to stopping this, but there isn’t much time.”

“Will it kill me?” asked Iria.

“We don’t know.”

Cassandra helped her get up and walk, one of her hands holding her arm and escorting her through the tents, all the time being observed by people that looked at her with hate in their eyes.

“They have decided your guilt. They need it. The people of Haven mourn our Most Holy. The Conclave was perhaps our only chance to put an end to this war between mages and templars. Now both Divine Justinia and their leaders are dead.”

So she wasn’t just in an unknown world and accused of committing a massacre. There was also a war in this world.

She followed Cassandra through a dirt track until they arrived at a massive pair of doors. Two soldiers opened them when they approached, making way for a stone bridged on the other side.

“We lash out, like the sky. But we must think beyond ourselves, as she did. Until the Breach is sealed.”

Cassandra pulled out a dagger and cut her bonds. For the first time since she woke up, Iria touched the mark in the palm of her hand. It was warm.

“There will be a trial. I can promise no more.”

“ _Viva las formalidades_ ,” she muttered to herself. A trial. What a funny formality. Everyone in this village had already decided the verdict. Her stomach felt like it was filled with ice.

“Come. It is no far,” said Cassandra, moving forward.

“Where are we going?” asked Iria. She followed Cassandra to the end of the bridge.

“Open the gates! We’re heading into the valley!” yelled Cassandra before turning to answer her question. “Your mark must be tested on something smaller than the Breach.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, the joy of copying dialogue from the game. It really makes my job easier for now.
> 
> Translations:
> 
>  _¿Hubo…?_ (Spanish) - Were there...?


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Iria discovers she has a tattoo. Also, she meets Varric and Solas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun thing about Olympic bows: you don't really hold them all the time, you have a sling to stop it to falling to the ground when you release the arrow. Did what happen to Iria with the bow happen to me at some point?
> 
> ... Yes. And to two other members of my old archery team. We all forgot that we weren't supposed to let go of the bow at the end.
> 
> Also, writing with your right hand doesn't mean that you'll also be right handed when using a bow. What determines which hand you use to hold the bow and which to draw is your _eye dominance_.

Iria coughed, trying to recover her breath after falling from the now destroyed bridge. Up until now, they had found no problems as they made their way towards the rift where the mark on her hand would be tested. Unfortunately for both of them, the Breach had decided to act up and what was essentially a green meteor had hit the bridge where they had been crossing.

Iria wasn’t an expert on medicine, but she hoped that the fact that she was still breathing without any major problems meant that she didn’t have a pierced lung. She knew that she should worry about internal bleeding if she started to feel dizzy, though. Next to her, Cassandra coughed while she rose from the ground. Iria imitated her, trying not to slip on the frozen river that they had fallen on.

There was a green light in front of them, and Iria looked up to see another green meteor coming down their way.

“Eh… Cassandra?”

“Move!”

They managed to avoid just in time the meteor as it hit the river without breaking the ice that covered its surface. The long clawed arms coming out of the black and green bubbling pool that had appeared where the meteor had fallen told them that something worse was coming.

Cassandra seemed to know what to do, because she didn’t hesitate as she unsheathed her sword and stepped in front of her.

“A shade,” the creature that came out of the pool was like a corpse with long arms and hands with wicked claws, its form was covered by a long dark cloak that Iria couldn’t tell if it was black or just a really dark brown.

Quite honestly, she didn’t care. She wanted to be like Alice and wake up under some tree.

_Merda. Merda, merda, merda…_

“Stay behind me!” and with those words, Cassandra launched herself against the creature with a battle cry.

Iria watched with horror as another pool started to glow in front of her, with another set of arms stretching out of it as the creature tried to rise out of it. Iria took a step back and her feet hit something behind her. She looked down at her feet and noticed the bow and arrows lying on the ground. As quickly as she could, she picked up the bow and as many unbroken arrows as she saw lying around.

She put a distance between herself and the new shade and aimed towards it. The bow fell to the ground when she released the arrow and Iria cursed. The arrow missed its target and Iria tried to remain calm as she recovered her bow and grabbed another arrow.

Right, traditional bow, not Olympic bow. You had to hold this one all the time. She had become too used to her Oympic bow.

Breathing deeply, Iria took aim again, trying to ignore the Shade that was coming towards her faster than what she found comfortably.  It was fine. She could do this. She was fast. Iria released her arrow and immediately took aim again at the still advancing creature that seemed to be undisturbed by the arrow on its chest.

She aimed for the head, hoping that maybe the thing was like a zombie and it would die if she went for the brain. It _had_ to have a brain somewhere, right? She hoped that she managed to hit the head, because she wasn’t used to doing this without a sight. She was really regretting picking up Olympic archery instead of traditional archery.

This time, the arrow seemed to do some damage, because the creature stopped and tried to get rid of take the arrow out. She was tensing her bow again when Cassandra attacked the creature from behind, separating its head from its body in one blow. Iria lowered her bow and gathered her remaining arrows before joining Cassandra.

“I think I’m going to need a quiver,” commented Iria as she approached Cassandra. The other woman’s answer, however, was to raise her sword to her.

“Drop your weapon. Now.”

Iria raised her arms in defence.

“Cassandra, _please_. That thing attacked me while you were busy.” she tried to reason. “You can’t be in two places at the same time, and you said that you _needed_ me alive.”

There was a moment of silence before Cassandra sighed and sheathed her sword again.

“You’re right,” agreed Cassandra. “We need you to close the Breach. Keep the bow, though be careful with it. It looked like you weren’t that good with it. As strange as that is.”

“Strange? Why?” she asked as Cassandra started to take some bottles from one of the still closed crates that had fallen from the bridge with them. Iria avoided looking at the green clad arm that was picking from under the rubble.

“I’ve always been under the impression that all Dalish knew how to use one.”

“Dalish?”

Cassandra rose from the crate, holding a bottle with a red liquid inside, “The tattoos in your face. They’re Dalish, right?”

“Tattoos?!” Without thinking twice about it, one of her hands went towards her face, touching the skin as if that would tell her face was truly tattooed. The panic that came each time she remembered that this wasn’t her body hit her again.

Cassandra grabbed her hand and moved it again from her face. She looked at her seriously.

 “I still haven’t asked. What is your name?”

She took a moment before answering, unsure if her name would sound strange for someone of this world.

“Iria.”

“Iria,” Cassandra nodded to herself and took her shield from her back. “Iria, you told Leliana and me that you didn’t know how you got here.”

“I _don’t_ know. I swear.”

“What do you remember?” asked the other woman. “Beyond your name, what do you remember?”

What did she…

“Oh…” she said, realizing what Cassandra was asking her. Cassandra cursed when she didn’t answer.

“Just what I needed. Our only witness is amnesiac,” she handed Iria her shield. “Do you even know what you look like?”

Iria shook her head and took the shield. As she had expected, the woman on the reflection was completely unfamiliar to her. Red hair instead of brown, green eyes instead of blue and pointy ears that were far too long. The worst part was her face. Why had she been pretending that the face was the same as hers? The body was slender than hers, of course the face would be different.

She added “long face instead of round” to the list of the differences and looked at the tattoo that Cassandra had mentioned. It looked like a tree, with the lines of the trunk starting on the bridge of her nose and its branched extending over her forehead and around her eyes.

An elf. She looked like an elf right out of _Lord of the Rings_. Well, of course she was an elf, what else was she supposed to look like with those pointy ears. She gave the shield back to Cassandra.

“I still need a quiver,” she needed a distraction. She really, really needed a distraction.

Cassandra took her shield back and gave her a quiver in exchange. Iria tied it to her belt and placed the arrows inside.

“Here,” said Cassandra as she handed her a small pouch. From the sound when it moved, Iria guessed that it contained some of those crystal bottles. A quick look confirmed her thoughts. “Heal potions. We’ll probably need them.”

She copied Cassandra and also tied her pouch to her belt.

“You’re left handed,” commented Cassandra as they started to walk away from the frozen river.

“Sorry?”

Cassandra nodded towards her quiver, “The quiver. You put it on your left.”

“Oh, that. But it’s just with bows,” she said.

“I see,” said Cassandra. “We need to hurry. Can you ran or are you injured?”

“I don’t think I broke anything on the fall, so I think so.”

“Good. If we encounter more demons, maintain yourself as far away as you can.”

*          *          *

They could hear the sounds of a fight up ahead.

“We’re getting close to the Breach,” commented Cassandra.

“Who’s fighting?” asked Iria behind her.

“You’ll see soon,” said Cassandra. “The rift is there. Keep yourself out of danger until we have taken care of the demons. Understood?”

“Yes.”

The rift. They thought the big one could kill her, what about this one? Was it as dangerous for her as the Breach? She could already see it up ahead, it looked like green crystals floating in the air, pushed together as if trying to fit through a hole far too small for them.

Around the rift, a group of people fought more demons. Most of the fighters used swords or bows, but the one that got Iria’s attention was the man with the magic staff. Not exactly something one sees every day, at least in her world.

Cassandra ordered her to wait next to the remains of what used to be a wall. She avoided aiming towards the demons that were already fighting those on their side; she didn’t trust her aim that much when it came to moving targets. However, she didn’t have a problem with those demons that noticed her and left the battle to move towards where she was.

The demons fell one by one and, before she knew what was happening, someone had grabbed her wrist and had her running towards the rift.

“Quickly, before more come through!” said the man that was holding her wrist.

He held her hand towards the rift and she could feel like something was tugging at her towards the rift as a green light came out of the mark on her hand. The rift closed and the man let go of her.

She looked at her hand and looked at Cassandra, “It looks like it works.”

 “It looks like that,” said the man next to her. Iria noticed that he also had pointy ears. “Whatever magic opened the Breach also placed that mark upon your hand. I theorized that the mark might be able to close the rifts that have opened in the Breach’s wake- and it seems I was correct.”

“Could it also close the Breach, then?” asked Cassandra.

“Possibly,” he turned towards Iria. “It seems like you hold the key to our salvation.”

“Good to know!” said another voice. “Here I thought we’d be ass-deep in demons forever.”

Iria turned towards the owner of the voice. She didn’t even feel surprised when she saw a dwarf with a crossbow. There were elves, why shouldn’t there be dwarves too? She hoped that they didn’t also have orcs and Dark Lords…

Of course, they already had demons.

“Varric Tethras,” the dwarf introduced himself. “Rogue, storyteller, and occasionally unwelcome tagalong.”

The unwelcome tagalong was accompanied with a wink towards Cassandra, who scowled at him. She looked annoyed enough to do more than hint that these two knew each other.

“Nice to meet you,” she answered. “I’m Iria.”

“You may reconsider that stance, in time,” commented the elf.

“Aww. I’m sure we’ll become great friends in the valley, Solas,” said an entertained Varric. Cassandra however, wasn’t.

“Absolutely not. Your help is appreciated, Varric, but…”

“Have you been in the valley lately, Seeker?” Varric interrupted her. “Your soldiers aren’t in control anymore. You need me.”

Cassandra let out a disgusted noise and turned away from them.

“She loves me,” whispered Varric to Iria, getting a laugh out of her.

“Seeing as everyone as already introduced themselves, perhaps I should do the same,” commented the elf. “My name is Solas. I’m pleased to see you still live.”

“He means, ‘I kept that mark from killing you while you slept,’” Varric told her.

“You know about the mark?” she asked, waving her hand for emphasis.

“Solas is an apostate, well-versed in such matters,” Cassandra informed her.

Apostate? What did religion had to do with knowing about the mark?

“Technically, all mages are now apostates, Cassandra,” he told Cassandra, before turning towards Iria. “My travels have allowed me to learn much of the Fade, far beyond the experience of any Circle mage. I came to offer whatever help I can give with the Breach. If it is not closed, we are all doomed regardless of origin.”

“I’ll try to do my best,” she said.

Solas turned towards Cassandra.

“Cassandra, the magic involved here is unlike any I have ever seen,” he explained to her. “Your prisoner is no mage. Indeed, I find it difficult to imagine any mage having such power.”

“Understood. We must get to the forwards camp quickly,” she said, starting to move again. Solas followed her.

“Well, Bianca’s excited!” Varric commented before also following the other two.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations:
> 
>  _Merda_ (Galician) - Shit.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Breach is closed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still don't like this chapter, it feels rushed.
> 
> PS: Now, who remembers that they subscribed to this six months ago?

She had to admit that magic was impressive. Cassandra was great with her sword, and she couldn’t help but envy Varric accuracy with his crossbow, but none of their attacks could compare to Solas abilities with his magic, even if he was clearly restricted by Cassandra presence among the demons.

Iria, for her part, felt a bit useless. This body had far more strength than hers, but her ability with a bow was still restricted by the fact that her accuracy disappeared whenever her target was more than twenty meters away from her. If she survived this, she swore that she was going to do some target practice. She had learned to use a bow because she found it fun, not in case she ended up in another world and was attacked by demons!

“You are Dalish, but clearly away from the rest of your clan. Did they send you here?” asked Solas after they had defeated the demons and were back on their path towards the forward camp.

“You aren’t Dalish?” Solas let out a laugh at her question.

“There is no _vallaslin_ covering my face, isn’t there?” he said.

“I… yes, well,” she said. “I didn’t even know I was Dalish until Cassandra mentioned my tattoo.”

She pointed at her face.

“This is the _vallaslin_ , right? The tattoo?” she asked him.

Solas looked at her, curious.

“You remember nothing at all?”

“My name, some basic skills with a bow…” she commented. “Nothing big. It seems like my time in the Fade really messed with my mind.”

“Ah,” he answered. “That’s… unexpected.”

“The whole situation is annoying, to be sincere,” she told him.

 *          *          *

 Iria did her best to ignore the smell of burnt flesh that dominated the scene before her. She breathed through her mouth and followed Cassandra deeper into what was left of the Temple. The ascension had been quick through the path they had taken, although it hadn’t been free of demons or rifts.

She was close to arriving at the Breach and she still couldn’t understand what had happened at the camp. Why had any of them thought that it would be a great idea to let her decide which path they should take to reach the Temple? In the end she had chosen the mountain path because Leliana had said it was the fastest route, but the whole situation was still ridiculous in her opinion.

 _We want to kill you, Iria,_ she mocked inside her mind. _But please, take this important strategic decision for us, will you?_

Iria stopped walking the moment they arrived at the chamber that was their destiny. This had to be a joke.

“ _Tienes que estar de coña_ …” Iria muttered to herself. “How am I supposed to close that?!” she asked Cassandra. The Breach must be like thirty meters above them, how was she supposed to interact with it?

She heard Leliana arriving behind them and talking with Cassandra. She came accompanied by soldiers, who started to take positions around the balcony that oversaw the chamber containing the Breach.

“We will need to open it,” said Solas, a frown forming on his face. “There’s no other way if we want to seal the Breach properly.”

A shiver ran down Iria’s back. She still didn’t like the idea that this people didn’t even know if she was going to survive the experience. Closing the small rifts hadn’t hurt that much, there was just some tugging at her arm and a slight pain, but nothing big.

“Well, shit,” Iria turned to watch as Varric’s face turned pale. She followed his gaze and saw dozens of giant red crystals protruding from the ground on the path down to the Breach.

“Is that what I think it is?” asked Cassandra.

“Red Lyrium,” confirmed Varric with a grimace. “Whatever happens, Seeker, make sure that that thing is destroyed. That thing is evil, avoid touching it.”

He frowned, “I wonder what it’s doing here…”

“Magic could have drawn on lyrium beneath the Temple and corrupted it,” offered Solas.

Iria approached the balcony and looked down. The fall didn’t look like much, and there were some fallen rocks that they could jump to first to reduce the distance to the ground.

“Ey!” Iria called the others. “Think we can jump down from here? We would avoid the evil crystals.”

 *          *          *

There’s an old woman dressed in robes floating on the air by her hands. In front of her, the vague shape of a dark creature with red eyes can be guessed.

“Keep the sacrifice still,” says the dark creature.

“Someone, help me!” cries the woman, Divine Justinia.

And then comes her.

“What’s going on…?” a red haired elf arrives. Curious about the cries for help she has heard, eyes widening as they take in the scene before her.

“Run!” exclaims Justinia. “Warn them!”

“We have an intruder,” says the dark creature before giving an order. “Slay the elf.”

 *          *          *

Solas said that they were echoes from the Fade. Memories that were repeating themselves over and over again for them to see.

Iria wonders if that elf is now dead or still lives in her body, just like Iria lives now in hers. She wonders about that girl’s name.

 *          *          *

Iria liked videogames as much as she liked books. The last game she had played, before ending up on this world, had been _Final Fintasy XII_. See, here’s the thing, in that game you can face things like giant birds and evil demonic walls with your tiny bow and still come out of the battle victorious.

Videogames are fucking liars and she wanted her money back.

The last thing she heard before the situation went down to Hell was Solas yelling “pride demon!” after she opened the Breach and a giant demon came out of it. She couldn’t even begin to understand how they were supposed to defeat that thing. The arrows just kept bouncing off its skin.

“Behind me!” cried Solas right before he created a barrier around them. “I need you to use the Mark on the Breach. It will weaken the demon so our attacks can damage it.”

The weakening caused by her use of the Mark wasn’t permanent, and she had to repeat it several times. The demon learned quickly that she was the reason why it was no longer invulnerable, and Solas and her had to move continuously through the chamber to avoid its attacks.

She sat down on the floor when the demon dissolved into the Breach after its defeat. She looks up and the ice is back in her stomach when she notices everyone looking at her.

“We need to close it now,” said Cassandra. “Before more demons come through.”

“Right,” answered Iria with a voice that barely could be heard. Time to see if she died closing this thing.

Closing… Oh. Closing.

She wasn’t getting back, wasn’t she? As soon as she closed the Breach, she was trapped in this world and in this body. She thought about refusing to close it, but that wouldn’t end well. The Mark would kill her if the Breach kept expanding, and she didn’t doubt for a second that Cassandra wouldn’t like that decision.

Iria raised her hand towards the Breach and let the magic course through her and towards the green hole between dimensions above her. If she survived, she would be trapped here, yes, but trapped was still alive and that was something.

Closing the Breach hurt. She prayed that it didn’t kill her. This wasn’t a slight tugging like before, this was like an animal had closed his jaws around her arm and was trying to rip her arm away from her.

She screamed before falling unconscious.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations:
> 
>  _Estás de coña_ (Spanish) - You have to be kidding.


End file.
